Grrrr. In his quesitons about God and war, ABC News's Charles Gibson took Sarah Palin's quote out of context and then claimed it was an exact quote.
Here's how he phrased it:
GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.
GIBSON: Exact words.
Well, no. Palin asked members of the church to pray "that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." That's very different. She's asking them to help insure that the war is part of God's plan, not declaring that it was.
Palin explained, accurately, to Gibson:
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said -- first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side. That's what that comment was all about, Charlie.
If Gibson wanted to challenge her on religion, he should have asked about her comment that it's "God's will" that Alaska have a great big natural gas pipeline.
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"they wouldn't have books if Palin had her way-"
Yes, you guys, please keep peddling your debunked conspiracy theories. So far it's really working.
Isn't the closing thought exactly the same mistake that was just previously corrected about the Iraq quote? She didn't word it well, but I think it's expressing the same view, that she thinks she's got an understanding of the right thing to do (i.e. God's will) but that she thinks people need to pray that it's the right thing to do. This won't happen unless it's God's will, so God needs to unite people to do it if it's going to happen. So pray about that. Notice she didn't say to pray for it but about it. I think, given the context of being right before her statement about Iraq and how she describes her son's decision to try to do the right thing, that the same view is going on her. So I see no reason to take her to be asserting that the pipeline is God's will. That seems to me to make exactly the same mistake as taking her to think the Iraq invasion was God's will.
Emelie, while you are right, that is conjecture, I don't see it as a sexist comment at all. She has had very little exposure to national and international politics and it was obvious from the interview that she had been coached by media handlers prior to the interview. Every politician at this level has a few media handlers, male or female. Not a big deal, it is just part of the game!!
Jeff writes, "She has had very little exposure to national and international politics and...." Talk about conjecture. Last time I checked, Alaska has web access, newspapers and the mail brings periodicals. They have libraries too. And visitors from the outside via cruise ships.
Well, I meant it as experience in national and international politics. Of course they have every technology in Alaska as the rest of the world.
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